The other day I heard a radio commercial that ended by giving the advertiser’s Web address.
Here’s how they gave it:
“Check it out at Triple W XXX.com.”
Instead of saying “w-w-w,” they said “Triple W.”
That’s not a very wise choice.
Why not?
If you mention “www-dot” at all, it’s to alert the listener that you’re about to give them a Web address.
If you say, “Check it out at www.XXX.com,” the “www-dot” tells the listener, “A Web address is coming next.”
But if you say, “Triple W,” the listener’s reaction is…nil.
“Triple W” has not become standard jargon for “beginning of a Web address.”
This discussion, of course, begs two questions:
1. Do we want to include the Web address?
You should mention the website only if the spot’s Call To Action is to visit the website.
Otherwise, you’re distracting the listener from the spot’s Core Message — the one thing you want the targeted consumer to hear, to understand, and to remember.
Quick Test: Does the advertisement make the targeted consumer want to visit the advertiser’s website?
If not, it’s foolish to spend valuable air time advertising something the targeted listener isn’t interested in.
2. If we include the Web address, do we want to say “www-dot”?
Usually, no.
If you say something like, “Visit us online at XXX.com,” the listener understands that’s a Web address. “Visit us online at” serves as the “website URL coming up” warning.
Instead of wasting one second of your radio ad on “w-w-w-dot,” use that second to strengthen the delivery of your sales message.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Web addresses are far better than phone numbers, but I suggest taking it a step further. Whenever possible use “search (client’s name)” in your copy. In this era of smartphones and tablets, my sense is that most consumers will use “search” before entering a full web address. I certainly do.
Be sure to check first whether “search” does indeed bring the advertiser at or very close to the top in the search results. If it doesn’t, stick with the web address.
Nick Summers
Palm Springs, CA
Dropping the “www.” was one step, we went even further and have reduced our station’s name – which is french and quite hard to write even when you know it – to an abbreviation that’s easy to write and especially retain. The URL that’s used in promo’s and trailers thus is the short(ed) version.com